Exelon Recognizes Top Banks and Financial Consulting Firms for Diversity and Inclusion Performance

3/13/2011 8:00 PM

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CHICAGO - Exelon has recognized five banks and financial consulting firms that best exemplify its values of diversity and inclusion by naming them to its first annual diversity and inclusion honor roll. The bank honorees are J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Northern Trust and The Royal Bank of Scotland, and the consulting firm honorees are Ernst & Young LLP and Towers Watson.

"For Exelon, diversity and inclusion is a business imperative that we can pursue successfully only in collaboration with outside partners that provide services critical to our success," said William A. Von Hoene, Jr., executive vice president of finance and legal for Exelon. "Exelon's finance department has undertaken this program to recognize companies that share our commitment to diversity and inclusion and to lay the groundwork for coordination on a variety of diversity and inclusion initiatives. It is modeled after a successful program our legal department implemented to improve the diversity and inclusiveness of our in-house lawyers and the law firms with which we work."

Exelon selected the top-performing companies based on a detailed assessment of 34 banks and consulting firms with which it does substantial business. It surveyed the companies in October 2010 to measure their diversity and inclusion performance and scored them to encourage continuous improvement in these areas. Through the survey, Exelon collected data respecting: • the representation of women and minorities on the teams serving Exelon - generally and in leadership roles, • the representation of women and minorities throughout the companies' U.S. operations, and • the companies' initiatives to promote diversity and inclusion, such as their use of women- and minority-owned businesses.

Exelon then assessed banks and consulting firms using quantitative and qualitative measures. One-third of each company's score was based on quantitative performance data, which Exelon assessed relative to the other companies. A cross-functional team of Exelon finance executives, directors and managers then assigned qualitative scores to each bank or consulting firm based on the diversity and inclusiveness they observed on the teams serving Exelon and the contributions of women and minorities on those teams. The remaining portion of each score was based on other areas of performance, such as the companies' own efforts and achievements in promoting diversity and inclusion within and outside of their firms, and their responsiveness to Exelon's program.

Each year, Exelon will provide individualized feedback to all participating firms, reassess their performance and publish a new honor roll.

Exelon's financial diversity initiative builds upon its robust partnerships with minority investment firms and its successful community and minority banking program, which is the only one of its kind in the electric utility industry. Under the latter program, Exelon in 2010 entered into credit agreements totaling $94 million with 29 minority and community banks located in the regions the company serves. The size of the credit arrangement has nearly tripled since Exelon introduced the program in 2003.

Exelon has made supplier diversity a key part of its overall supply chain strategy, spending more than $408 million with minority- and women-owned businesses in 2010. In addition, Exelon has approximately $583 million in assets under management with nine minority- and women-owned asset management firms and approximately $700 million of pension and healthcare assets invested with minority- and woman-owned investment firms.